


The Noble Librarian

by lotsandnoneatall



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, mentions of donna noble, mentions of martha jones - Freeform, mentions of rose tyler - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-12
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-12-19 05:45:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/880117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lotsandnoneatall/pseuds/lotsandnoneatall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, fresh from saving the world yet again (this time with a new woman), offers to Eileen Temple the endless possibilities of time and space; to be the Doctor's new companion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Noble Librarian

The Doctor almost seemed angry. “You don’t want to come with me? You don’t want to see the universe, all of time and space?”

            Eileen Temple shook her head. “No. I’m certain.”

            The Doctor was silent, his eyes continuing to bore into the young woman standing before him.

            “You could do great things. _We_ could. Why would you stay in your library when we could go to ancient Greece and watch the first Olympics, or when we could see the rainbow whales sing on the planet Coloratus—“

            “I know who you are, you know,” Eileen interrupted. “My mother kept a diary.”

            “Your mother--?”

            “She doesn’t remember you, of course. My great-granddad left me her diary in his will. Along with his old telescope…” She paused and observed the Doctor. “He put a little note in it—‘Your mum can’t remember, but she travelled the world with a funny man in a blue box. Maybe you will one day, too.’”

            “Your mother—she’s Donna Noble?”

            Eileen nodded. “Well, it’s Donna Temple since she married dad. But, yes.”

            Eileen was surprised to see the Doctor get teary-eyed. “How is she?”

            Eileen smiled. “She’s great. She’s got a picture of you, in the diary. Probably took it when you weren’t looking. But you look so different…”

            “That tends to happen,” The Doctor said vaguely.

            Eileen raised an eyebrow but continued. “I just remember this one thing my mother wrote: ‘Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation.’ D’you know who told her that? Rose.”

            The Doctor’s eyes flickered at the name. “She is,” the Doctor said softly.

            Eileen smiled warmly. “Yeah,” she agreed. “But also a real pain in the arse sometimes.” She laughed. “Mum wrote that she had felt useless—just a temp, but not even that, since she had quit. She felt like she was nothing.”

            “In 900 years of time and space,” the Doctor muttered thoughtfully, as if reciting a memorized line of poetry, “I've never met anyone who wasn't important before.”

            Eileen’s smile turned almost bitter, but her voice was as calm and smooth as ever. “Really?” She looked at him, unblinking. “Even me in my boring library?”

            “Oh, yes,” The Doctor’s eyes twinkled.

            Eileen wasn’t smiling anymore. “Frankly, Doctor,” she said slowly. “I think perhaps you should reexamine your philosophy.” The Doctor furrowed his brow as she continued. “If you ask me, which you haven’t, I quite _like_ my boring library. In fact, I don’t find it boring at all. I know I’m not the most important woman in the whole of creation, or the legend of bad wolf, or the woman who walked the earth. But I’m a librarian. I have the responsibility and the privilege to explore the imaginations and facts and knowledge of endless worlds and their stories, whether they be big, small, short, or long; I get to share and encourage that with all the old, the young, and the in-between citizens of my city.” Eileen smiled, her eyes warm. “I suppose in that respect we are alike, Doctor. But don’t you dare think, for one second, that just because I don’t need a heroic timelord, just because I’m not itching to forget my life and run away, that I’m weak or insignificant.”

            The Doctor looked at Eileen, smiling a little sadly. He nodded. “Books are the best weapon in the world,” he said.

 *********************

           The two of them eventually exited the TARDIS, the Doctor sharing his favorite memories of his travels with Eileen’s mother. They sat on a wide green bench in the local park, and when they both finished their ice cream cones, said a final farewell.

            The TARDIS creaked affectionately as the Doctor stood at the controls, alone yet again. But there was something small lying on the dashboard—a brown, leathery book. Inside was a note—

 

_Doctor—_

_Thought you’d enjoy mum’s sassy narration first-hand. I stand by what I said, but who's to say I won’t take a holiday every once in a while? What do you think? I’ll be expecting to get this diary back eventually anyway—overdue books are a librarian’s pet peeve, after all!_

_I hope I see you again,_

_Eileen_

 

There was also a small picture of Donna and Eileen, who probably around the age of twelve. They smiled up at the Doctor, their flaming red hair glistening in the sunlight.

            The Doctor smiled, but grumbled to himself, “Why does everyone else get to be ginger?” With a flush of rejuvenation, he began to pull and poke the different levers and buttons on the dash.

**Author's Note:**

> -This may be a one-shot. Not sure if I want to add more chapters or make it a part of a series.  
> -I imagined this to be with the Eleventh Doctor, perhaps after Amy and Rory leave, but I suppose there's a lot of options of when it can be.  
> -Coloratus is not a real planet (in real life or in the show), and it is based off the Latin word which means "colored".  
> -Eileen is named after her grandmother, who was married to Wilfred (Wilf) Mott.  
> -Donna actually did get married to a Temple, but I have no idea whether they had children or not.  
> -I also don't know if the Doctor ever told Donna about Rose and Martha, but I used their epithets for the plot/dialogue's sake.  
> -This was kind of inspired by my general angst about certain things about recent Who-- it seems to have gotten off-track of the things I liked most about it, including the importance of even the most ordinary people and their actions, as well as the addition of unnecessary romantic subplots. (I just miss Donna Noble a lot.) It's the necessary humbling of the Doctor, reminding him (in the wise words of Rory Williams) that not all victories are about saving the universe.


End file.
